Radinaledi Mosiane writes:

In 1993, as the country was engulfed in internecine strive, the youthful musical group, Boom Shaka mesmerized the largely black South African populace with their debut single, It’s About Time. In it the lead singer says- ‘I am tired of people always asking me “what’s happening, what’s going on”. The contemporaneous emergence of the song with the heightened expectation, especially amongst the youths, at the prospect of a future non-racial, human rights-based South Africa, was just exhilarating. By all measure, it was a momentous event that happens once in the history of any nation. Indeed, it was about time, and time did meet us. 

Altogether between the April 26-29, 1994, 19, 726, 579 votes were counted and 193 081 rejected as invalid in the first democratic election in 1994. This vote accorded South Africans with an opportunity to chart a new path of development, under the marshalship of Mandela’s Government of National Unity.

Through their adult suffrage, South Africans had concluded that the new epoch demanded a shift away from the asphyxiating sillage of the era of deprivation and the gremlins of apartheid social engineering. They concluded that the pre-1994 blood-letting that sought to cauterise their hopes should be jettisoned and be replaced by a process of reconstruction and development of their country, people and economy. As fate would have it, following the subsequent catastrophic 2004 general elections the former National Party (now called New National Party) dissolved and merged into the ANC. To be precise, in 2005, the NNP Federal Council dissolved the party and its leader, Martinus Van Schalkwyk went on to serve as Cabinet Minister under President Mbeki.  

From 1994 many initiatives were immediately embarked upon to facilitate the meeting of the new mission. Primary amongst these would be the opening up of opportunities in education, economic activity, especially for the previously excluded among the population.    

Though uneven, undoubtedly many transformational advances have been made both in the private and the public sector terrains to equalize the socio-economic wellbeing of the populace. More can, and still needs to be done.

Regrettably, many of the advances have been made in relations to functions within the purview of the national, such as labour relations, human settlement, human rights, education, etc.

One may not be faulted in concluding that the 2024 general election outcome represents a judgement by the voters on how lacking delivery has been. Whatever one makes of that result, now all live with its outcome under the new Government of National Unity, with its imperfections.

What is ahead of us in a week is the opportunity to determine the governance of our towns and cities, villages and district. As individuals of voting age, you are not entitled to your permanent state of childhood.

Your perennial yammering and moaning are only a false flack signage of your dereliction of responsibility.

Some amongst you are clerks, Personal Assistants, teachers, doctors, lawyers, police officers, educated public servants, soldiers, professional consultants, academicians, kinder-garden teachers, et cetera. In our social sea of illiteracy, you are required to scaffold society in many ways. You carry the social responsibility to ensure that your neighbours are assisted to access government services, especially free basic services where these are the only social safety nets available. Thus, you choosing not to vote in local politics, is your political choice against the well-being of your own children and parents (and neighbours) who look up to you for their electricity, water, street lights, etc.

Approximately thirty-five years after the first local government elections, we each must know what is possible, who can deliver it and who can’t. We are more than our skin pigmentation. We are fathers, mothers, girl or boy children, disabled, heterosexual, LGBTQ, Catholic, Protestants or Pentecostal, Muslim, Judaist, Evangelists, Traditionalist, White, Black, Indian or Coloured, or and whatever other categorisation that define your needs or desires.

Your multiple personalities belie your continued classification only by race, which only serve to hem your innovative capacity to pursue dreams to which your children are entitled. Your vote must rescue all from the pungent smoke of ineptitude that is imprisoning our tomorrow.

But more importantly, you can’t serially commit your future and that of your children to unprincipled knaves, brass necks or the hoity-toity simply to placate outdated ideologies and racial passions. That will be idiotic.

There was nothing fatuous about Boom Shaka’s outburst back in 1993, it was time for a break with the past. It’s about time again today, as both ourselves and our children require job opportunities, access to health facilities, houses and homes, sustainable water and electricity, etc. But what they require more, is their stolen HOPE, without which they lose all purpose for living. None of these will be satisfied by otiose slogans or a load of baloney. Patience is the last vestige of the coward, and no transformation is permanent. It’s about time and as they say, it does not matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches a mouse.                

A total of 421 members of Parliament voted in favour of the new Constitution in May 1996, thereby guaranteeing things such as free basic services and primary education. These will not be lost whether it is ActionSA, ANC, DA, or any other party that governs JB Marks. Against the agonies and cries of our young, we are responsible to seek the cat that knows how to catch a mouse, It’s About Time.

*This contribution is published as opinion and reflects the personal views and interpretations of the author.